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Published: September 9th 2019
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Eggs Florentine6 September 2019, Friday
Day 5 on Thames Path, Tadpole Bridge to Newbridge, day 20 of travel.
We will start by describing one portion of our dinner from last night. Dinner at Tadpole Bridge - Oh my, we cannot forget our dinner at Tadpole Bridge last night! It was a gastronomic dream. I will only describe my soup as it will suffice to give you an idea of the culinary delights we had. First of all Harlan and I love soup and it is an item that lends itself for easy experimentation while traveling. Our waitress was quite young and we find out she has just been working there for just a few days. She is kept constantly running to the kitchen to find the answers to our questions. It was like the old game of 20 Questions. The hardest item to find the answer for was the soup of the day--courgette. Another one of the wait staff comes over to help and spells it out. We finally determine it is pureed cucumber soup. They think it is bland so they add a little mint oil and then top it off with a healthy dose of sun dried tomatoes--one of
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Vegetarian with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon the most delicious soups we have had in our travels. Everyone thought their meal outstanding and all of us tried something new!i
Our stay at the Trout Inn was one of mixed reviews. Our room had a shower that did not have any containment so when one showered it got the entire bathroom wet. But the food and accommodations were lovely as well as all the people were very friendly and provided good service. I had a marvelous breakfast of eggs Florentine with mushrooms, tomatoes and ham as well as yogurt, watermelon, strawberries and grapefruit. Well fortified for the day ahead. Some of our group had porridge (oatmeal), croissants, or scrambled eggs with smoked trout.
Today we complete the second portion of the Lechlade to Newbridge stage of the trail. We followed the windy Thames River and weave our way through a gate into Chimney Meadows National Nature Reserve. It is one of the largest areas of unimproved meadow land in England, rich in hay meadow plants.
To start our walk we crossed over Tadpole Bridge from the South Bank to the North Bank of the Thames and continued our walk along the reeds and trees beside
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Tadpole Bridge. One lane the river and through the fields.
We all agree one of the highlights of the day were the locks. A river boat and two motor boats had passed us and we were hoping to see them go through the locks at Shifford. We arrived in time to see the two motor boats lined up in the lock and the long narrow river boat behind the lock by itself. The two motor boats waited in the lock so that the water would drain down to the needed level downstream. The lock gates could then be opened and they could pass on down river. One of the boat owners from the narrow boat helped push on the long levers to open the lock. The girls are on the other side pushing the other long lever attached to the gate. I get in the action with the other gentleman. When the boats pass through the gates, the gates are shut and wheels are used to turn the paddles closed so that the lock can then be filled up again and the next boat pass. It is all great fun and the other boat owner has time to answer our questions. So we
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The Trout Inn as viwed from across the water are now skilled in self-operated lock procedures.
On one very wooded path near the weir and the lock there were many trees with different kinds of cages attached to them. Some look like bird cages, others possibly bat cages.
At the Rose Revived, we have a sign 40 miles to the source and 153 miles to the Sea. We stopped but we're still an hour and a half too early to check in for our room so we have a bowl of soup and a rest before checking in.
Wendy, from Toronto, has been with us most of this day also. She is going on to the Ferryman's Inn on down the road. We decide to call a taxi to go to the Ferryman Inn and walk the three and a half miles back up to
Rose Revived to save that amount on our 14 mile day tomorrow. On this stage of our walk we meet Steve the lock-keeper. He shows us the physical placing of paddles to control the river water level. We leave nuty before we complete the walk back to Rose Revived the rains have started.
The inns are very fussy about not
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Vegetation along the Thames checking in until after 2 pm.
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